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Crop Residues

Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of Ganga Lalwani Vs Union of India & Others With News item published in “Indian Express” Authored by Mallica Joshi Titled “All fiddle as crop stubble burns, farmers say solutions out of reach” dated 15/11/2018 regarding mitigation of air pollution caused on account of crop burning in the States of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

New report reveals 13 solutions to air pollution that can help reduce pollution levels by 40% nationally. A new study by Louisiana State University (LSU) points out towards 13 measures that can reduce air pollution levels by almost 40 percent and avoid nine lakh premature deaths caused by air pollution in India every year.

Since at least the 1980s, many farmers in northwest India have switched to mechanized combine harvesting to boost efficiency. This harvesting technique leaves abundant crop residue on the fields, which farmers typically burn to prepare their fields for subsequent planting. A key question is to what extent the large quantity of smoke emitted by these fires contributes to the already severe pollution in Delhi and across other parts of the heavily populated Indo-Gangetic Plain located downwind of the fires.

While there have been substantial efforts to quantify the health burden of exposure to PM2.5 from solid fuel use (SFU), the sensitivity of mortality estimates to uncertainties in input parameters has not been quantified. Moreover, previous studies separate mortality from household and ambient air pollution. In this study, we develop a new estimate of mortality attributable to SFU due to the joint exposure from household and ambient PM2.5 pollution and perform a variance‐based sensitivity analysis on mortality attributable to SFU.

The experimental work presented in this study was carried out with the hypothesis that plant derived smoke enhanced the morphological, physiological and biochemical attributes of a cereal crop, wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Furthermore, this study supported the hypothesis that plant derived smoke acts as vegetative growth promoter, inexpensive, rapid and most appropriate eco-friendly bio-fertilizer for sustainable agriculture.

A task force constituted by Niti Aayog on biomass management has pitched for providing financial support to those farmers who have not burnt their crop residues. The burning of agricultural residues leads to poor air quality across Northern India.